This project continues art-historical and contextual research on Carthage’s new Samuel and Berry Shoen Collection of Soviet Art to understand how artists were generating meaning with their works. The collection contains, for the most part, art that is geographically and chronologically “Soviet,” that is, from countries politically subsumed into the USSR (1922-1991). Collaborating with Professor Robin Holmes, we wanted to uplift artists and subjects within the Shoen Collection that represent cultures and identities outside contemporary Russia. In addition, we want to consider the politics of approaches to art and its histories using the collection as a guide. Using our language skills to read original sources unavailable in English, as well as our personal experiences with Ukrainian and Russian heritage and cultures, we wanted to bring an important perspective to this work.

Post-Soviet nations have not always been included in this work toward decolonization. The categorization of many important modern artists as “Russian” has newly been raised as a strategy for erasing marginalized identities. This erasure has clear political consequences in a world where questioning Ukraine’s historical nationhood and cultural patrimony has directly justified Russia’s threats to Ukrainian political sovereignty.

Even though I was born in Ukraine sometime after it gained independence and the Soviet Union crashed, I grew up in a culture that had more Soviet than solely Ukrainian attributes and history. Being taught the comprehensive history of Ukraine, both inside and outside of the USSR, from the Ukrainian view gives me an entirely new perspective on the collection of Soviet art. I believe my knowledge, language, experience, and consultations with my family, who have lived through the Soviet time, helped me shine a new light on this project. Highlighting art and its history creates a more diverse perspective and brings awareness of the ongoing war in Ukraine.